Blue and Red Knight Restaurant

During the month of January, our second graders had a unit entitled "Food, food, food." So, Miss Mirka and I decided that a nice culmination to our unit would be to have a restaurant. We asked all the parents to help by sending in food and paper products. Mirka and I got table clothes, fancy napkins, flowers in silver vases, and even mood music. One of the 8th graders and a fellow English teacher made a gorgeous sign to welcome our students. Mirka and I put all the desks in groups of 2 or 4, laid down the table clothes, napkins and vases, plugged in our flower lights, and set up the food in the back of the room. All was ready.

Now, a little background info. In our textbook, was a dialogue about a forgetful waiter. It went something like this:
Waiter: Here you are (handing the customer a menu)
Customer: Please can I have a tuna sandwich?
Waiter: Certainly (goes away)
Waiter: Here you are. A delicious cheese sandwich.
Customer: Oh, no! Not a cheese sandwich - a tuna sandwich.
Waiter: I'm very sorry.

My second graders had really liked taking turns playing the waiter and the customer, especially being the customer and saying very loudly - "Oh, no!" So, we used this dialogue as the basis for our restaurant. We asked parents to send in cheese, chips, bread, apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, cereal, cookies, apple juice, orange juice and milk. Our students had created their own menus which we used for our restaurant.

So, half the students were waiter/waitresses and half were the customers. The waiters would bring their menu to the customer and say, "Here you are." The customer would then peruse the menu and decide what to have. For instance, "Please can I have chicken with rice?" The waiter would respond, "Certainly," and go to the food tables and choose one or two of the food items to bring back. "Here you are. An apple and a cookie." To which the student could respond one of two ways. "Oh no!" and the waiter would take the food back and try again, or "I like apples and cookies. Thank you." The customer would then eat the food.
It was amazing to listen to all of these mini dialogues going on in English. My second graders are not very comfortable in English, but to listen to them this day, you never would have guessed it. Our principal, Rado, the secretary, Katka, both of the second grade teachers, Zuzka and Veronika, and one mom all showed up and took turns being customers. The kids were delighted and had a great time.

2nd Grade Restaurant